The safe and economical production of commercially valuable hydrocarbons, such as, for example, crude oil, is critical for the well-being of the global energy and chemical markets. Processes for increasing crude oil yields and enhancing oil recovery, including the use of compounds and related methods, are of great importance to the oil and gas industry. A chemical class of particular importance in liquid hydrocarbon recovery is surfactants. Surfactants may be utilized in liquid hydrocarbon recovery processes due to their ability to reduce the surface tension between liquid-liquid and solid-liquid interfaces, such as crude oil in a subterranean reservoir. These compounds may be cationic, anionic, both (zwitterionic) or non-ionic and subsequently may have a wide range of organic counterions in addition to or alternative to inorganic counterions in addition to or alternative to metallic counterions.
Petroleum sulfonate is an anionic surfactant that may be used in liquid hydrocarbon extraction techniques such as enhanced oil recovery (“EOR”). Although it is inexpensive and beneficially soluble in fresh water, petroleum sulfonate can be largely insoluble or difficult to dissolve in high salinity aqueous solutions such as salt water, and often results in an insoluble agglomeration comprising the petroleum sulfonate composition. The global abundance of seawater and brine for use in EOR and other liquid hydrocarbon recovery processes could therefore benefit the energy and chemical industries through the development of improved petroleum sulfonate and related surfactant based compositions and methods of use capable of enhancing oil recovery processes.